Why did you do it?
Why all the violence?
Why the killing fit?
Was it worth it in your greed,
in your mistaken need?
For trade with a hermit
is no need to ferment.
You took the lives of 350 souls
defending their country against your greed.
You tried to force them into a trading role
and gave up after they wouldn't quite their creed.

Why must we hide it?
Why aren't we taught this?
Why the hiding bit?
Was it worth it in our greed,
in our perceived need?
To battle the hermit kingdom
because they had an isolation policy.
Now we hide our 19th century imperialism
and lie and say we weren't seeking any territory.

What do you call such practices all over Asia?
Some type or weird way to help and Christianize?
What about Japanese and Korean insurgencies?
What about taking over Hawaii and Guam?
No, we aren't taught about our policies in Asia.
After all who wants to show their bad tendencies
towards taking places to feed their ships and greed.
Above all, who speaks for the Korean dead in Gangwha?

*Nov. 5, 2002.
**I visited the place where the U.S. Navy took out three forts and 350 Koreans this past weekend. Quite embarrassing when you consider we did this because we wouldn't take no for an answer to trade. The Koreans did fire at the ships but as a warning to stay away. However, we took this as an excuse to get what we wanted. Sounds similar to the Maine in a way.